a great irreverent and very profound film where the true nature of God and his children are exposed, generally very funny. The plot is origin and very beautiful, without holes and with so many amazing martyrs

a great irreverent and very profound film where the true nature of God and his children are exposed, generally very funny. The plot is origin and very beautiful, without holes and with so many amazing martyrs

Although this movie may not "cure" your depression, it will create such a joyful intimacy with the mysteries of life, that your depression will take on a romantic tone and the line between sadness and laughter will dissolve.

Although this movie may not "cure" your depression, it will create such a joyful intimacy with the mysteries of life, that your depression will take on a romantic tone and the line between sadness and laughter will dissolve.

Although not exactly a household name, I've been a huge fan of Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael for some time. Unfortunately, he has only made a handful of films, though, and there is often long periods inbetween. That said, when one arrives it's always worth the wait and you are guaranteed something a little a different and often very imaginative and inventive. His latest in The Brand New Testament, once again, delivers on that expectation.
Plot: God is alive and well and lives in present-day Belgium as he meddles in the personal affairs of his human subjects. He's not very good at his job, though, so his young, opinionated daughter decides to take over and create a better, more positive, world. She descends to earth in search of 6 messengers to write a Brand New Testament with God in hot persuit to thwart her ambitions.
Before venturing into the world of filmmaking, Jaco Van Dormael actually persued a career as a circus clown and rejoiced in working with children. It's this very playfulness and joi d'vuevre that's channeled in his approach to telling a story and The Brand New Testament is another wonderful film that's filled to the brim with such creativity and flair that it's hard to fully capture or explain how joyful it is. The best way to draw comparison would be to mention it in the same capacity as Jean Pierre Juenet's delightful French film, Amelie. There are many similarities in terms of its structure, it's humour and the way it introduces its colourful cast of characters. As Amelie is one of my all-time favourite films, it will be no surprise to hear that I absolutely adored Van Dormael's film too.
The rewriting of the New Testament is such a genius concept and Van Dormael's execution of it is genuinely hilarious with beautifully judged surreal moments: to begin with, God is depicted as a malevolent piece of shit, who is abusive to his wife and children and prefers to create new laws and hardships for people so he can revel in their suffering. Of course, God had a son in Jesus but he's only ever referenced as "J.C." and is nowhere to be found after having failed at assembling his apostles. Turns out J.C. wasn't an only child, though. God also has a 10 year old daughter, Ea, who decides to assemble her own apostles and rewrite a Brand New Testament. To do so, she first hacks into God's computer and reveals to every individual on Earth when they can (exactly) expect to die. This causes havoc amongst society and people begin to approach their lives in vastly different ways - with one even attempting suicide on many occasions only for him to, knowingly, (and repeatedly) escape the clutches of death as his preordained expiration date has yet to come. We also have Catherine Denueve's lonely housewife who is so starved of any meaningful connection in her life, that she falls in love with a gorilla and enters into a relationship with it - leading to the films most hilarious scene when her husband walks in on them post coitus. There's also a sexual deviant who finds that he has a talented voice that will make him money to which he chooses to dub over porno films. Even the way that God has to travel to earth, he has to do so via a washing machine drum that exits into a laundrette where he is met by a petrified woman who pepper sprays him in the face. There really is no end to the entertainment value and the wealth of ideas this film has. As mentioned earlier, it's difficult to fully explain what Van Dormael manages to capture here but it's certainly worthy of far more attention than it's received.
Those of a religious persuasion may deem this to be sacrilegious but I, on the hand, thought it an intelligent, metaphysical satire that plays havoc with centuries of religious/Christian beliefs and principles - while also taking a mischievous stab at patriarchy and how different the world would be with female empowerment. There's a plethora of excellent scenes and hilarious characters throughout Van Dormael's riotously enjoyable black comedy and he delivers it with such playfulness that it's hard not to be swept along with its creative enthusiasm.
Mark Walker

Although not exactly a household name, I've been a huge fan of Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael for some time. Unfortunately, he has only made a handful of films, though, and there is often long periods inbetween. That said, when one arrives it's always worth the wait and you are guaranteed something a little a different and often very imaginative and inventive. His latest in The Brand New Testament, once again, delivers on that expectation.
Plot: God is alive and well and lives in present-day Belgium as he meddles in the personal affairs of his human subjects. He's not very good at his job, though, so his young, opinionated daughter decides to take over and create a better, more positive, world. She descends to earth in search of 6 messengers to write a Brand New Testament with God in hot persuit to thwart her ambitions.
Before venturing into the world of filmmaking, Jaco Van Dormael actually persued a career as a circus clown and rejoiced in working with children. It's this very playfulness and joi d'vuevre that's channeled in his approach to telling a story and The Brand New Testament is another wonderful film that's filled to the brim with such creativity and flair that it's hard to fully capture or explain how joyful it is. The best way to draw comparison would be to mention it in the same capacity as Jean Pierre Juenet's delightful French film, Amelie. There are many similarities in terms of its structure, it's humour and the way it introduces its colourful cast of characters. As Amelie is one of my all-time favourite films, it will be no surprise to hear that I absolutely adored Van Dormael's film too.
The rewriting of the New Testament is such a genius concept and Van Dormael's execution of it is genuinely hilarious with beautifully judged surreal moments: to begin with, God is depicted as a malevolent piece of shit, who is abusive to his wife and children and prefers to create new laws and hardships for people so he can revel in their suffering. Of course, God had a son in Jesus but he's only ever referenced as "J.C." and is nowhere to be found after having failed at assembling his apostles. Turns out J.C. wasn't an only child, though. God also has a 10 year old daughter, Ea, who decides to assemble her own apostles and rewrite a Brand New Testament. To do so, she first hacks into God's computer and reveals to every individual on Earth when they can (exactly) expect to die. This causes havoc amongst society and people begin to approach their lives in vastly different ways - with one even attempting suicide on many occasions only for him to, knowingly, (and repeatedly) escape the clutches of death as his preordained expiration date has yet to come. We also have Catherine Denueve's lonely housewife who is so starved of any meaningful connection in her life, that she falls in love with a gorilla and enters into a relationship with it - leading to the films most hilarious scene when her husband walks in on them post coitus. There's also a sexual deviant who finds that he has a talented voice that will make him money to which he chooses to dub over porno films. Even the way that God has to travel to earth, he has to do so via a washing machine drum that exits into a laundrette where he is met by a petrified woman who pepper sprays him in the face. There really is no end to the entertainment value and the wealth of ideas this film has. As mentioned earlier, it's difficult to fully explain what Van Dormael manages to capture here but it's certainly worthy of far more attention than it's received.
Those of a religious persuasion may deem this to be sacrilegious but I, on the hand, thought it an intelligent, metaphysical satire that plays havoc with centuries of religious/Christian beliefs and principles - while also taking a mischievous stab at patriarchy and how different the world would be with female empowerment. There's a plethora of excellent scenes and hilarious characters throughout Van Dormael's riotously enjoyable black comedy and he delivers it with such playfulness that it's hard not to be swept along with its creative enthusiasm.
Mark Walker

God (Benoît Poelvoorde) lives in an apartment in Brussels which he shares with his meek wife and his 10-year-old daughter Ea (Pili Groyne), to whom he is emotionally and physically abusive. God is a grumpy sadist who created humankind specifically to have something to torment. He manipulates reality via a personal computer which he forbids his family from accessing. One day, Ea sneaks into his office and discovers how He has been mistreating humans. This enrages God who then whips Ea with his belt. Ea decides to rebel against her father. She steals the key to His office and accesses the scheduled dates of death of every human in the world and releases the information to them via their portable telephones. Everyone with a cell phone receives a text message informing them exactly when they will die. Ea then locks God's computer and escapes the apartment through a washing machine which provides a tunnel to the outside world. Wandering the streets of Brussels, Ea decides to follow in the footsteps of her brother Jesus and write a Brand New Testament as her contribution to the human race. She selects six apostles to narrate their life stories...
The Brand New Testament (Le Tout Nouveau Testament) is a 2015 fantasy dark comedy film written, produced, and directed by Jaco Van Dormael. It is a co-production among Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The film was screened at the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist of nine films, but was not nominated. The Brand New Testament received ten nominations at the 6th Magritte Awards, winning four awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Van Dormael.
"Le Tout Nouveau Testament" is a pretencious and silly attempt to be a Wes Anderson/Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie. The first part of the story is intriguing, there´s a surreal and funny narrative that could´ve been really good. However, the story simply dies when Ea starts to select her six apostles. It´s timeconsuming, boring and not funny. Van Dormael tries so hard to be Jean-Pierre Jeunet but fails as the editing is messy, the storyline messy, the characters are unfunny, underdeveloped and not believeable, the film is unbalanced and why the focus on baseball? Van Dormael doesn´t manange to keep it together nor end it in a satisfying way.

God (Benoît Poelvoorde) lives in an apartment in Brussels which he shares with his meek wife and his 10-year-old daughter Ea (Pili Groyne), to whom he is emotionally and physically abusive. God is a grumpy sadist who created humankind specifically to have something to torment. He manipulates reality via a personal computer which he forbids his family from accessing. One day, Ea sneaks into his office and discovers how He has been mistreating humans. This enrages God who then whips Ea with his belt. Ea decides to rebel against her father. She steals the key to His office and accesses the scheduled dates of death of every human in the world and releases the information to them via their portable telephones. Everyone with a cell phone receives a text message informing them exactly when they will die. Ea then locks God's computer and escapes the apartment through a washing machine which provides a tunnel to the outside world. Wandering the streets of Brussels, Ea decides to follow in the footsteps of her brother Jesus and write a Brand New Testament as her contribution to the human race. She selects six apostles to narrate their life stories...
The Brand New Testament (Le Tout Nouveau Testament) is a 2015 fantasy dark comedy film written, produced, and directed by Jaco Van Dormael. It is a co-production among Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The film was screened at the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist of nine films, but was not nominated. The Brand New Testament received ten nominations at the 6th Magritte Awards, winning four awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Van Dormael.
"Le Tout Nouveau Testament" is a pretencious and silly attempt to be a Wes Anderson/Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie. The first part of the story is intriguing, there´s a surreal and funny narrative that could´ve been really good. However, the story simply dies when Ea starts to select her six apostles. It´s timeconsuming, boring and not funny. Van Dormael tries so hard to be Jean-Pierre Jeunet but fails as the editing is messy, the storyline messy, the characters are unfunny, underdeveloped and not believeable, the film is unbalanced and why the focus on baseball? Van Dormael doesn´t manange to keep it together nor end it in a satisfying way.

I felt like Jaco Van Dormael never decided if he wants to make a light-hearted comedy about religion or a subtle arthouse drama, so he made both and mixed it into a single movie. A very well made, thought provoking and stylistic movie no less.

I felt like Jaco Van Dormael never decided if he wants to make a light-hearted comedy about religion or a subtle arthouse drama, so he made both and mixed it into a single movie. A very well made, thought provoking and stylistic movie no less.